The present invention relates to a system for energy conservation in residential facilities, with particular application to hotel rooms.
In residential facilities, and especially hotel and motel rooms, conservation of electrical energy is an important element of controlling the cost of operating the facility. While it is desirable to have all electrical amenities, including lights, entertainment facilities and air conditioning, fully operational when a guest is present in the room, it is also desirable to reduce that energy consumption whenever the room is vacant, even when a guest is absent from the room for only a few hours. Accordingly, it is desirable to have an energy management system (“EMS”) to control consumption of electrical energy in the room to reduce wasteful usage.
In some prior art systems in hotel rooms with modern wiring, the EMS may be integrated into the hotel security computer system that controls the use of card keys in the room door lock, so that actuation of the lock by the card key can energize the room, with timers or motion sensors further controlling the energization of the system. However, for existing facilities, extensive rewiring would be required to fully enable such a system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an energy management system for residential facilities that can easily be retrofitted to existing rooms without significant requirements for rewiring the room.